Christine Langhoff, retired teacher and education activist in Massachusetts, describes the power elite in the Bay State. After losing the charter referendum in 2016 by 68-32%, they keep pursuing ways to bypass the voters.
Massachusetts has 3 Walton-connected members of the state board of education, appointed by the governor, who was formerly the executive director of The Pioneer Institute. The Pioneers are funded by the Kochs and State Policy Network (worth checking out, as they like to fly under the radar). The Pioneers are affiliated with ALEC. The secretary of education, Jim Peyser, formerly ran Pioneer and in between serving Republican administrations in MA, he also ran Education Next, which posted this bio:
“Jim Peyser is Managing Partner for City Funds at NewSchools Venture Fund, a non-profit grant-making firm that seeks to transform public education by supporting innovative education entrepreneurs. In this role, Jim leads NewSchools investment activity in Boston, Newark and Washington, DC. From 1999 through 2006, Jim served as Chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Prior to joining NewSchools, Jim was Education Advisor to two Massachusetts Governors, where he helped shape state policy regarding standards and assessments, school accountability, and charter schools. In 1995, he served as Under Secretary of Education and Special Assistant to the Governor for Charter Schools. He spent more than seven years as Executive Director of Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, where he helped to launch the Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center, which supported the development of the state’s first charter schools. Prior to joining Pioneer Institute, Jim held various positions at Teradyne, Inc. in Boston, an electronic test equipment manufacturer. In his role with NewSchools, Jim currently serves on the board of directors for Achievement First, New Schools for New Orleans, Success Charter Network, and Uncommon Schools. He is also chairman of the board of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). In June 2011, Jim was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Jim holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School (Tufts University) and a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University.”
Of course, they all play nice guys on television.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Key architects of Mass. Ed Reform were liberal democrats like former labor lawyer Tom Birmingham (D) and Marty Walz (D), who each at various times served as co-chair of the legislature’s education committee… the latter leaving her legislative post to head Planned Parenthood/MA. Former Ironworkers union president, and current Congressman, Stevie Lynch (D) was a co-founder of Boston Collegiate Charter School. Mayor Marty Walsh (D) previously laborer’s local president and head of the Boston Building Trades, was a member of the Board of Directors of the superb Neighborhood House charter school. Governor Deval Patrick (D) supported Massachusetts charter schools. And last but least, long-time Boston Democratic ward committeeman Stevie Ronan (D) occasionally strives to supplement the broad and deep understanding of the wise and witty lads and lasses who assemble in Dr. Diane Ravitch’s dugout.
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And these Democrats are carrying out the wishes of hedge fund managers and billionaires who are overwhelmingly conservative Republicans who hate unions and public schools. In my dugout, they are recognized as dupes who were taken for a ride.
Who financed the Massachusetts “Yes on 2” campaign? The Waltons and local billionaires with deep ties to the Republican Party. Who opposed it? Democrats, unions, teachers, parents, civil rights groups.
Wake up, Stephen Ronan. Real Democrats support public schools, not private charter schools.
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Diane: “Who opposed it? Democrats, unions, teachers, parents, civil rights groups.”
By far the most influential opponents were (1) the teachers unions some of whose slippages from veracity in the campaign I, at the time, scrawled on the walls of your dugout (though, to give them due credit, one of their core claims did clear the bar as “technically true” though “false” and “misleading” according Ballotpedia) and (2) Boston Mayor Marty Walsh who had proposed his own different plan for expanding charter schools.
If you would like to better understand the position held by many of the Democrats in the state most well-informed on the issue, I would encourage you to read these newspaper editorials:
Boston Globe: Vote ‘yes’ on Question 2
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2016/10/29/vote-yes-question/4GhhmBk6IpCDWGg8NehwFJ/story.html
Bay State Banner (the most prominent media outlet in Boston’s African-American community): “Vote ‘yes’ for better educational opportunities
https://www.baystatebanner.com/2016/09/28/vote-yes-for-better-educational-opportunities/
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Gosh, those teachers unions in Mass are so powerful. They were outspent 2-1 by the charter billionaires and charters were overwhelmingly defeated. Polls at the time showed that Democrats voted against charters and Republicans votes for them. You can read more about this important election in my new book “Slaying Goliath.” The near unanimous rejection of charters by the state’s local school committees may have been even more important in defeating charter expansion than the unions.
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“The near unanimous rejection of charters by the state’s local school committees may have been even more important in defeating charter expansion than the unions.”
Ah, you think of those as entirely separate operations?
This is the sort of fantastic concoction that the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) served up concerning our charter schools during the campaign: “Parents of five out of ten students are choosing to withdraw their child from urban charter high schools.” MASC had hired the former director of the Mass. Teachers Association’s Center for Education Policy and Practice to compose its analysis.
I hope your book examines whether suchlike stuff was true, whether voters were well-nourished by such fare.
MASC was, by the way, informed that it was tommyrot, but didn’t remove the decaying banquet from prominent position on its web site till the vote concluded.
Perhaps save your celebration of voter wisdom in 2016 elections for Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania? Oops never mind, skip that also.
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Stephen,
Charter billionaires spent twice as much as teachers unions in the 2016 referendum and yet the “Yes on 2” campaign to expand the number of charters was overwhelmingly defeated. The only places it wIn we’re wealthy suburbs that never expected to have a charter.
Stop making excuses: voters said NO MORE CHARTERS IN MASS.
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The Boston Globe’s editors may be “well-informed” but, the assumption that knowledge instead of vested interest determines media’s coverage/policy positions is unsupportable.
Presumably Fordham and Sen. Peggy Lehner in Ohio are knowledgeable but, Ohioans continue to be bilked by charter school operators who fund the Republican Party.
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The Boston Globe has become yet another shill in the pockets of the charter industry, at least when it comes to funding education for our low income kids and those whose first language isn’t English. (Of course, for years thay have disparaged the work of Boston’s teachers, both with their columnists such as James Vaznis and Scot Lehigh, as well as on their editorial page. They endorsed the hiring of the unqualified Laura Perille, CEO of EdVestors as interim superintendent last year.)
Most recently, they’ve taken the position that impoverished school systems must be more “accountable” before receiving the unpaid funds due them – some $1-2 Billion – under the marvelous ed reform agreement of 1993. They call it, of course, “throwing money at the problem”.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2019/06/21/school-spending-more-about-how-than-how-much/a6VhJJsb1SbTEVYLvdeUzH/story.html
The affected cities and towns meanwhile intend to file suit to force equitable funding:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/06/12/parents-file-civil-rights-lawsuit-against-state-over-unequal-school-funding/4pZWbg1UccaEUhUOQ3ibhK/story.html?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link
Also, they’ve entered into a dubious agreement to have the privatizing Barr Foundation subsidize their reporting on education. UMass professor Maurice Cunningham (and honoree of Diane’s blog) has that story here: http://www.masspoliticsprofs.org/2019/06/27/the-boston-globe-barr-foundation-marriage-and-the-rise-of-philanthro-interest-group-journalism/
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“Stevie Ronan” talks about himself in the 3rd person like the joke he is?
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a great candidate slogan for 2020: Real Democrats Support Public Schools
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Christine,
Have you brought the Boston Globe to the attention of the group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting?
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Tom Birmingham is now a Fellow at the Pioneer Institute. Marty Walz left her legislative position shortly after passage of the so-called “Act Relative to the Achievement Gap”, and took a postion at DFER. Among other provisions, the legislation gave charters access to student information from public schools, allowing them to be targeted for recruitment. It also raised the cap to 18% of students in so-called failing districts (as determined by test scores).
Mayor Walsh has decimated the budget of the Boston public schools each year he has been in office, as was detailed in Diane’s post from July 4: https://dianeravitch.net/2019/07/04/a-true-american-patriot-and-a-hero-of-public-education/
Stephen Lynch is so out of touch with his own union members that he split with them when they opposed and helped to defeat Question 2.
Deval Patrick, like his pal Obama, is a neo-liberal who attended private schools and thinks the charter experiment is grand.
Kinda out of step, Mr. Ronan.
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C.L.: “Mayor Walsh has decimated the budget of the Boston public schools each year he has been in office”
According to Boston Public Schools (BPS):
“The BPS budget represents a $26 million increase over the current year and a $200 million increase since Mayor Martin J. Walsh took office in 2014.
[…]
“The FY20 BPS budget reflects an increase in per-pupil spending by 25 percent over the past six years, from about $16,500 in FY14 to $20,700 in FY20.”
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Strikingly, that budget leaves us with 20 librarians for 123 schools, and many schools without counselors or a nurse every day. Anyone can understand that each year a school budget grows. The question is whether it’s adequate to provide the appropriate education every child deserves. And before we get on about how well paid Boston’s teachers are, there’s an overload of administrative folks, some who came under Carol Johnson in 2007, stayed through Chang, and many others who arrived under Perille. Given the average cost of rent for a two bedroom apartment is at $2500 and teachers must acquire and pay for a masters within 5 years to gain professional status, teachers deserve to be fairly compensated.
Of course, charters are harming our schools because state Chapter 70 money for low income kids gets sucked out of the city without our kids ever seeing it. Last year, 125 BPS schools received 22% of state aid; 78% of state aid went to 24 charter schools. Chapter 70 funding goes to charter schools first and BPS gets the left over. It is how the law is written – by Marty Walz.
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Strikingly, that budget leaves us with 20 librarians for 123 schools, and many schools without counselors or a nurse every day. Anyone can understand that each year, a school budget grows. The question whether it’s adequate to provide the appropriate education every child deserves.
Of course, charters are harming our schools because state Chapter 70 money for low income kids gets sucked out of the city without our kids ever seeing it. Last year, 125 BPS schools received 22% of state aid; 78% of state aid went to 24 charter schools. Chapter 70 funding goes to charter schools first and BPS gets the left over. It is how the law is written – by Marty Walz.
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SR, not liberals. Neo-liberals. Get it right. There is a difference.
Educate yourself!
When you share comments like “Key architects of Mass. Ed Reform were liberal democrats” you are showcasing your confirmation bias and ignorance — with an emphasis on ignorance.
Now before you claim I called you stupid, I want to make it clear what I meant when I alleged you were ignorant.
“Difference Between Ignorance and Stupidity. The intrinsic difference is that ignorance simply implies lack of awareness about something, while stupidity denotes the inability of a person to understand something due to insufficient intelligence, thus leading to the misinterpretation of a fact.”
It will be up to you to show us if you are ignorant as I alleged or that I was wrong and you are really stupid.
“What’s the Difference Between Liberalism and ‘Neoliberalism’?”
“It is possible that there is no term more abused in modern political discourse than ‘liberalism.’ Originally meant to describe the ideology of free trade and limited government, the anti-capitalist left adopted the term in the 1930s and changed its meaning to the opposite of what it meant in the 19th century.
“Liberalism never quite lost its correct meaning in most of the world, however, and in Spanish-speaking countries, for example, the word “liberalismo” still often means the ideology of free trade and free markets. Only American right-wingers appear to use the term as a pejorative to sling at the anti-capitalist left. Even in America, though, with the left having eschewed the term for the more trendy ‘progressive,’ the use of ‘liberalism’ in political invective appears to be fading. …
“Neoliberalism is a controversial term that refers primarily to the 20th century resurgence of 19th century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism. These include extensive economic liberalization policies such as privatization, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, and reductions in government spending in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy.” …
“One compelling indicator of the term’s negative connotation is that virtually no one self-identifies as a neoliberal,” …
https://mises.org/wire/whats-difference-between-liberalism-and-neoliberalism
AOC is a progressive liberal.
“Tom Birmingham (D) and Marty Walz (D)” are exampled of neo-liberals.
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Lloyd,
DEMS who are NEO-Liberals make me ILL.
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Democrats that are Neo-Liberal are not really Democrats. They are Republicans that invaded the Democratic Party with plenty of financial support from conservative billionaires and they are pretending to be Democrats.
Subversion!
Subversion!
Subversion!
Subversion!
Subversion!
Subversion!
Subversion!
Leads to Treason!
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“Of course, they all play nice guys on television.”
The minions working for Koch, Gates, Walton et al. were probably all required to take acting lessons and learn how to fake honesty and hide lies.
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Excellent background on the corporate allegiances of nominally “public” officials. These conservative agents are embedded at all levels of govt. and move fluidly from corporate offices to foundation boards to govt. office unifying the pro-corporate dominance of policy. The triumph of such right-wing corporate agents was foreseen in the famous Powell Memorandum of Aug. 23, 1971 in which soon-to-be-nominated Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell wrote for the US Chamber of Commerce a “white paper” on the imminent threat to the American system emerging from the mass movements of the 1960s. Powell then itemized a step-by-step plan for a panoramic corporate counter-attack which was largely followed and fulfilled decade by decade with a neoliberal offensive in govt. and corporate circles, leading up to the current right-wing domination of the GOP and the corporate dominance of the Democratic Party. The current progressive opposition to Trump is very large and Trump controls only a large minority of the electorate(about40%). The large opposition needs its own “Powell Memo” now to consolidate its majority. How things play out from here will depend on how well the many vibrant but separate components of the opposition consolidate as a singular force to overcome the vast wealth and organizational-governmental power of the status quo.
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In Florida there is no democratic opportunity to deter charter or voucher expansion. I have not voted on one privatization expansion proposal in the past ten years. Yet, the privatizers continue to get a bigger share of the budget. All the decisions are made in Tallahassee from the collusion of the legislature and the governor. They don’t want the public to have a voice. Every decision is top down and imposed on the citizenry.
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Florida did have a referendum on vouchers in 2012. It was called “the Religious Freedom Amendment.”
58% of voters opposed “religious freedom” and vouchers.
The politicians ignored it.
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The elected politicians ignored it because they control most of the primary process in each party. The Republican and Democratic (neo-liberal and corporate not real liberals and progressives) primaries are the weak links in the election process. Few vote in the primaries and both major parties focus on that weakness to push through candidates by scaring enough really easy to fool voters into voting for candidates who belong to the extremist billionaire oligarch factions in each party. That way they hold on to the majority in each state legislature and both Houses of Congress.
The only way to stop this is to educate the voters that turn out in the midterms and general elections to also vote in the party primaries when there is more of a choice.
That is how AOC beat the odds and made it by focusing on getting out the vote for the Democratic primary in her district.
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The Waltons got Question 2 on the ballot because the teachers unions wouldn’t acquiesce to the demands to eliminate the charter cap. They never dreamed, with all the dark money they invested, including $600,000 from Paul Sagan, the Chair of the Board of Education and the backing of Governor Baker that they would lose.
They are still licking their wounds.
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What a bunch of tools! They actually have a Hall of Fame for themselves, I mean, “the movement?” It is probably located in the Hamptons so the hedge fund guys don’t have to go too far.
Have a wonderful time traveling and happy Birthday.
Cheers, Sarah
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It should be the “Hall of Shame!”
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Well said, Sarah!
A movement based in East Hampton!
The grassroots grow in Sagaponack, next door.
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The Koch’s and Gates are an ugly joke. The Koch’s have their “Pioneers” and, Gates has his “Frontier Set”. The actual, historical example of pioneer/frontier spirit is settlement of the Northwest Territory. The Northwest Ordinance called for public schools and universities.
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